


In The Midst Of The War

by ununquadius



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Gryffindors Hate Slytherins, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Wizarding Wars (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2019-10-20 00:14:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17611772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ununquadius/pseuds/ununquadius
Summary: Seventh Year at Hogwarts is a nightmare. Neville can feel the weight of the war on his shoulders but he doesn’t tell anybody. Of course, things are about to change, and not necessarily for the worse for once.





	In The Midst Of The War

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired by keyflight790’s prompt “Neville finds love with a Slytherin. Your preference on who it is”. She prefered a M rating, but the hottest thing I can write is chocolate, sorry, Chris!
> 
> A big thank you to Corie for the wonderful beta! <3
> 
> And a big thank you to rose-grangerweasleyisbae for reblogging a post of the Growing Neville minifest <3

The war had destroyed everything: the world, the castle, the classes, the relationships among the students. Only the hate remained. It was the law now; you saw a Slytherin in the corridor, you attack before they attack you. Death Eater scum the lot of them. 

Neville suffered. He hadn’t wished for a war. He had never thought that the war that sent his parents to St Mungo’s could reach him too. He was tired of the hate, the spells muttered for evil purposes in the halls, the smell of old socks in the Room of Requirement. He was tired of the fear. 

He sighed and leant on the wall, overlooking the growns below him. It looked so quiet at night. He could almost forget the war. But of course, he couldn’t. He reached for his wand when he heard the first noise. A sob. Then came a hushed voice. He listened carefully. Who were they?

“Shh. It’s alright. See? All the blood’s gone now!” a feminine voice said. Neville didn’t recognize it, but he was sure he had heard it before. 

“I don’t want to go alone to the Tower,” another feminine voice said. This one sounded scared and younger. 

“I’ll go with you. Is that alright?”

Neville didn’t hear the answer, but he listened to the retired steps of the two girls. He sighed again. There still were good people in the castle. There was hope. 

It was the next day, in Herbology, when Neville heard the first voice again. He was pruning the big Lazy Appletree specimen in front of him and thinking about all the gaps there were in the class, when she spoke. 

“Don’t throw earth at me, you moron!”

He turned around. Daphne Greengrass. He didn’t know how he hadn’t recognized her before, they had been classmates for seven years now after all, although they hadn’t ever talked to one another. 

She was laughing with her friends and that small fact irritated Neville. They were in the midst of a war, people were dying and being tortured, and these three girls were laughing? Well, they were Slytherins. Death Eater scum the lot of them.  


***

He couldn’t sleep. Seamus’s snores were loud enough to keep him awake, but it wasn’t just Seamus in there; almost all the sixth and seventh year Gryffindors lived in the Room of Requirement now, as well as the seventh year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws and some younger students. He got up and went for a midnight stroll through the castle corridors. 

It would have scared him in other times, but these days the loneliness of the halls and the quietness of the night were a present compared to the fear the day brought with it, where Death Eaters tortured children and children cursed their classmates and friends. 

The pale light of the full moon provided light enough to see, but Neville, too preoccupied with his own thoughts, didn’t see the other person who was out of bed. 

“Ouch!”

“Sorry! I didn’t see you!” Neville apologized. He could feel his face burning. 

“Can you help me?” the other person, Daphne Greengrass, he realized, was still sitting on the floor and extended an arm in a search of help. 

Neville helped her up and it was then he realised she had been crying. She was a Slytherin and was probably enjoying the Carrows’ teaching methods a bit too much, but she looked… awful. Red eyes, an incredibly sad expression and something about how she was holding herself reminded Neville of the scared students in the RoR. 

“Are...are you alright?” he asked. 

“Yes, apart from my arse, which I think is just a big bruise now, I’m fine,” she said, smiling in a kind way, as if she didn’t mind that Neville had collided with her and sent her straight to the stone floor. But there was something…

“Are you sure?”

He could see it. The fear. Daphne Greengrass’s eyes weren’t the eyes of the winners. They were scared eyes. Eyes that had seen the worst and hadn’t liked it. Eyes that searched for help but didn’t know where to look for. Eyes like his. 

She looked at him, and something broke. Tears ran freely down her cheeks, and her arms wrapped around her chest in an attempt to hold herself together. Neville patted her awkwardly in the shoulder.

“I’m… I’m… so scared,” she whispered. “I want this war to end. Yesterday… yesterday I had to heal a first year Gryffindor because Amycus Carrow had hurt her.”

“I’m scared too,” Neville said, and it was so good to say it aloud. He had been putting on a brave face for the sake of the rebellion, but he was still that plump scared boy that had arrived at Hogwarts seven years ago. And he was terrified. 

“I’m not even safe in my own common room. Draco’s a Death Eater, and Gregory and Vincent… well, I’m not sure if they have the mark, but they’re as cruel as the Carrows. I don’t want them to find I don’t like this and hurt me.”

“You…” he wanted to invite her to the RoR, but there weren’t Slytherins there. What if this was a trap? She seemed sincere, but one never knew. Seamus’s words came to his mind again; Death Eater scum the lot of them. “You can ask me for help, if they hurt you,” he said instead. 

“Thanks. You’re so brave,” she smiled kindly at him. Tears forgotten now. 

“You too. I… I heard you last night, helping that girl. You were very nice, walking her to her common room and all.”

“It was the right thing to do,” she shrugged. “I… I better go back to my dorm. Good night.”

“Night.”

***

Were all Slytherins Death Eaters? Were they that bad? Daphne wasn’t. Neville had the chance to speak with her a lot during the next weeks. During the day, they ignored each other, save for some encouraging smiles or a hidden touch when they passed each other in the corridors. At night, they met in closed classrooms and whispered their fears, hugged each other to fight the hate that surrounded them, and built a friendship based on their rejection of the world around them rejection. In the morning, they were a Slytherin student and a member of the DA again. 

They told nobody about their friendship. They felt it was something forbidden. A Gryffindor and a Slytherin. The fighters for the Good, and the house of the Evil. Or that was what they had believed. 

Neville learned that Daphne was kind and compassionate. She fought against the Carrows in her own way. She helped younger students, she found ways to avoid cursing her classmates or really hurting them. Nobody suspected her, but she had her own fans among the ones that couldn’t protect themselves. 

It took time, but Neville realised he loved her, more than he loved Ginny or Luna. And so, with his heart full of doubts he told her.

“I love you.”

“Me? The hero loves me?” Daphne’s eyes were wide open, as if she couldn’t believe her words. 

“I...well, I’ll leave.” He couldn’t believe he had said that to Daphne, of course she’d mock him. Who would love a plump, shy boy like him? Not this beautiful, brave, and wonderful girl. 

“No! Don’t leave! I… it’s just that… well. You’re so brave and...You stand up for yourself and others, and I’m… me. I’m nothing like you.”

“It’s the right thing to do,” he smiled shyly and shrugged. 

“Yes, it is.” she smiled back. “I… I love you too.”

And then, in the midst of the worst war the Wizarding World had ever seen, Neville allowed himself to feel happiness for the first time. It seemed an irrelevant feeling, but the world was already too dark, and if this wasn’t proof enough that the world wasn’t split into good people and Slytherins, the world was very mistaken. 

He took a step forward and kissed her. Worse things would come, but for now, love had defeated fear and hate.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! <3


End file.
